Eden In Black

[Seth and Hazel]

-"Mine." Seth smiled as he playfully took Hazel's drink from her hand and took a sip.

-"Refreshing enough for you?" She said sarcastically as she crossed her hand, holding herself back from giggling at how in love she was with his little habits.

He stopped drinking and smiled, handing her back her drink, "I left you some, don't worry." he replied as they both enjoyed the walk under the covered pathway that led into the Art department.
-"What time is your class?" Seth wanted to make sure he still had more time with her as soon as they reached her classroom and held both her hands playfully.
- "You know, most architecture students rarely have enough time to socialize." Hazel said playfully as she swung both their hands back and forth.
- "Oh really? So, you want me to leave now?" He grabbed her closer and placed both their wrists behind his back.
-"Shut up." She smiled and suddenly noticed someone watching them when she looked over Seth's shoulder.
- "Is that Kai?" a sudden shiver came across her body; she wasn't sure why.
-"That's weird." Seth was confused. Looking behind him, his mood shifted and decided to see what was wrong, Kai stood motionless and just stared at them like he needed to say something but wasn't sure.
Seth left Hazel with a kiss on her forehead and approached Kai cautiously, there was something about the way his shoulders hunched in defeat that made Seth worry.
-"Everything okay?" he placed his hand on Kai's shoulder. Kai pushed Seth's hands away, "Have you seen Remi lately?" he asked, his hand nervously stroking the side of his face.
-"Remi?" Seth scratched the back of his head, the last time he saw Remi was a week ago, and he didn't think much of it.
-"Did you try calling her?" he added, taking his phone out from his pocket.
- "Never mind." Kai walked away while Seth insisted on following him.
- "Where are you going?" Seth asked noticing how Kai continued walking in the opposite side of the Campus.
-"What?"
-"Room T846 is this way." Seth gestured.
- "I have to be somewhere." Kai was still in his defeated posture.
- "You've been skipping too many classes, I'm not sure I can cover up for you this time, it's been 7 classes already." Seth was worried Kai was going to fail the semester.
-"Just come up with something like you always do." Kai shrugged, the last thing he cared about is the damn classes.
- "Stop" Seth's voice was stern, forcing a halt to Kai's movement.
- "What?" Kai was annoyed.
- "Will someone finally tell me what on earth is going on?" Seth held himself from yelling too loud, he didn't want to disturb the students in the adjacent classes.
- "Forget it Seth, don't interfere with things that don't concern you." Kai answered lazily. -"Enough!" Seth moved hastily towards him and grabbed his shirt, his eyes furious.

 Kai didn't say anything for a while, waiting for Seth to finally say what he wanted, not that he cared much.
-"And?" Kai couldn't wait any longer, his left eyebrow lifted, he didn't have time for this. -"Nothing." Seth let go and swallowed hard.
- "I'm sorry". he added, his anger slowly disappeared. He couldn't believe how Kai gave him the exact same look Eden gave when he confronted him, they both had that look in their eyes, sad and empty, tired and in defeat.
- "We are friends Kai, try to remember that from time to time." Seth's last words as he walked away.

 Kai paused for a while at the sound of those words, he hated how he felt indifferent by it, and friendship was a luxury he never had, so the words Seth said really meant ...nothing.

Seth met Hazel later that night, he found solace and comfort in her presence, his nights were filled with silly laughter and he found himself motivated to do things, to design better, to finally live his life the way he imagined it to be. A hopeless romantic, his mother used to say before she died when he was a teenager, Hazel somehow reminded him of her. The way she loved him and took care of him, Hazel felt like home.

-"Everything okay with Kai today?" She suddenly stopped painting with her yellow saturated brush.
- "He was looking for Remi." Seth continued his 3D modeling built up for his conceptual project design. Hazel's room fell awkwardly silent, it was unusual for it to feel this way, the mentioning of Kai hit something unusual between them.
-"He came up to us the other day in the Cafeteria, when I was trying to talk to Eden, he had this look in his eyes, I'm not sure what it was." Hazel was still applying her brush strokes carefully on her canvas.
-"What did they talk about?" Seth was still clicking his mouse and typing the commands in his keyboard, he was too focused on making the design as functional as possible.
-"Oh, I don't know, I left as soon as he came."
-"Kai needed to talk to Eden?" Seth stopped working, his mind racing in thought.
He couldn't find anything that tied those two together.